Report by North Derbyshire Radio’s David Bell
The points were shared at the Stonelow Stadium as North East Derbyshire’s Dronfield Town drew 1-1 with Bolsover and District’s Shirebrook Town. It was a scrappy and derby-like affair throughout with Dronfield taking a first half lead through Arthur Pashley. Credit to Shirebrook however, who remained competitive during the second 45 minutes and took a share of the spoils through Josh Tate’s 57th minute strike. The result left both sides remaining in 14th and 21st respectively in the UCL Division One table. Dronfield now face a tough run of fixtures into the new year starting with the visit of league leaders Retford FC to S18 next Saturday.
The game was a scrappy affair throughout and it felt like the side that could get the ball on the floor and play would reap the rewards. On 9 minutes, Shirebrook’s Keiran Grant thought he’d beaten Dronfield’s offside trap but the Assistant Referee thought otherwide.
The game remained disjoint for a good twenty minutes but the home side gradually began to assert themselves.
When they did, they found themselves on the scoresheet. Dronfield’s Max Rhodes fed Arthur Pashley some 10 yards from goal and he managed to stab the ball home past Harrison Kissane to put Town a goal to the good after 26 minutes.
On the half hour mark, Shirebrook managed a useful break through Nathan Clarke; Lewis Naylor having to make a low stop to keep Dronfield in front.
Young striker Pashley had two good chances to close the first half. He unfortunately scuffed his shot on 32 minutes, allowing Kissane to save comfortably and just two minutes later, he managed to put another attempt wide of the Shirebrook keeper’s right hand post.
Pashley was withdrawn early in the second half to be replaced by Alex Appleyard but it was Shirebrook who went on to impress in the second forty minutes.
They took the game to Dronfield, with left-sided attacker Grant continuing to catch the eye.
They got their reward on 57 minutes. A low strike from Josh Tate at the edge of the box didn’t have much venom but still managed to find the corner of Lewis Naylor’s goal to level the encounter at 1-1.
Naylor was called into action on the hour, parrying Kian Tansley’s threatening 20 yard free kick to his left hand side and with ten minutes remaining, another Shirebrook break ended with Liam Widdowson’s shot going wide of the mark.
Dronfield were unfortunate not to get a second on 86 minutes. Substitute Matty Ord’s turn and left-footed shot rebounded back of the post from the edge of the box but it was Shirebrook, who ended the game stronger.
Ihor Zhydkov fired over the bar in the dying minutes and that was followed by fellow substitute Tom McNally blasting wide shortly after.
A draw was just about the right result from a game that lacked outright quality. Dronfield can expect to encounter such quality in their next fixture when league leaders Retford FC, beaten only once in the league this season, are the visitors to the Stonelow Stadium for the pre-Christmas fixture.
Dronfield Town: Naylor, Bancroft, Simpkins, Stewart, Shelbourne, White, Chapell, Bovill, Rhodes, Walker, Pashley. Subs: Reardon, Appleyard, Ord, Vardy, Gladwin.
Shirebrook Town: Kissane, Joseph, Hartley, Jules, Jacobi, Tate, Shaw, Widdowson, Clarke, Tansley, Grant. Subs: Zhydkov, McNally.
Attendance: 136
